Thursday, June 18, 2009

Middle C, Sort Of

I remember quite some time ago talking to another TA (I don't remember who, or even if they were a music TA) about how weird it is to write on a board--how odd spelling is, or music notation, when it's giant and right in front of your face. With that caveat, music fans may want to skip to 17:50, where I get a question I (or, you know, a third-grader) should slam out of the ballpark, but I only sort of get it right.

Which begs the question of the century in music pedagogy: do they make whiteboard rostrums? Yes, I know there are whiteboards with music staves already on them, but there's just something about the thought of seeing a teacher line up five pieces of chalk, each broken in its own weird way, that gets lost in this new age of markers.

Of course, who's ever been in a classroom that had two working dry erase markers, let alone five?